Avalanche Forecast

Moderate - Freezing levels are uncertain

Sunday night: Periods of snow bringing 20-30 cm of new snow. Heavy rain below about 1100 metres, possibly 1600 metres.Monday: Continuing periods of snow bringing 10-25 cm of new snow to higher elevations. Rain below about 1600 metres. Strong to extreme southwest winds Freezing level to 2000 metres with alpine temperatures around 0.Tuesday: Mainly cloudy with isolated flurries and a trace to 3 cm of new snow. Moderate to strong southwest winds. Freezing level to 1200 metres with alpine high temperatures around -4.Wednesday: A mix of sun and cloud with isolated flurries and a trace of new snow. LIght west winds. Alpine high temperatures of -7.

Reports from Saturday showed recently formed storm slabs reactive to skier traffic and ski cutting, producing small (Size 1, 30-35 cm deep) storm slab and loose dry releases. Poor visibility was noted to be limiting observations.On Thursday, two natural storm slab avalanches stepped-down to facets at the bottom of the snowpack and resulted in Size 3-3.5 avalanches. They occurred on north and south aspects between 2000 and 2250 m. The extended period of continuous loading of the snowpack may begin to reactivate deeply buried weak layers resulting in large and destructive avalanches running full path.

Another 10 cm of new snow on Sunday morning brings recent storm totals to 90-120cm. Moderate to strong south winds have been redistributing each day's accumulations into dense storm slabs in lee and cross-loaded features at treeline and above.90-120cm below the surface you'll likely find a few crusts that were buried during the first few weeks of January. Due to limited observations, not much is known about the current reactivity of these layers.The lower snowpack includes the mid-December crust layer. The load of the new snow may tip the balance and reactivate this layer in isolated terrain - particularly in the north of the region where it has shown prolonged reactivity in snowpack tests.